Photo Surprise

I got an email yesterday letting me know that since I placed in my age division I would get to choose a photo from the race. Pretty stoked about that since I have never bought a race photo and I always think about it. When I went to the link to see what pictures the photographer captured I had 4 options...3 just like the one below and one pre-race standing around.

I went with this one (the less serious of the 4):

What became clear to me once I saw this picture:

a. I need to learn how to run with my bike while holding the seat! 

b. I haven't quite mastered the skill of balance while running! Every time I practice holding the seat/running, it goes to the right or left. 

Any tips for me?? 

c. I run much faster with my bike shoes on while on grass...The pace slows down the second I hit the pavement in fear of wiping out. 

d. The CN Tower is MASSIVE! and I love it!!!

e. I'm very serious/focused

Last but not least...

f. I love my bike and I am soooooo freakin happy I got into the world of triathlons.

What Next?

Today I went to see my personal trainer, Brandon Crowe. He's been working with me on increasing my strength in my hips, glutes and pretty much everywhere to prevent muscle injury, increase my recovery and make my hill training much stronger. Initially I started working with him to prevent my nagging knee (runners knee) injury from returning. He's quite frankly phenomenal and I've seen much improvement in all areas since working with him.

Here's a video if you want to check him out:

His website is:
http://fitnessunleashedtraining.com/

Today he put me through a tough workout focused on my hamstrings that are my weak zone, my biceps, triceps and core. During the workout when I had a chance to recover I started thinking about what I'm going to train for now and how I need his support.

With my tri's being over for the summer I know I want to focus on my running but instead of doing just marathons I want to mix it up! I am very open here to any suggestions you all might have!!!

My gremlin tends to want me to focus on time and having an improvement each race, but what I want is to change it up. What I mean is, I want to do a few different distances this fall from 5k's to full marathons and I want to do a Halloween Run. I am in Toronto so I want to keep them fairly close to home. I want to really have fun while doing my races. Yes I will still do some races to increase my time but I am all about the FUN this FALL.

FUN FALL RACE GOALS 2012:
1. I will run a race in a costume.
2. I will run a race from start to finish with a friend. 
3. I will run a race with a family member. 
4. I will do a new trail race. 
5. I will seek a race that is dog friendly so my trusty boxer, Kaiser can join.

My trusty companion Kaiser

If you know any races in the Toronto area that would fulfill these goals, please let me know!!!
Or if you have any FUN FALL goals that you think I need to add, I'd love your feedback.

Multisport Canada Triathlon Series Toronto Island

Tri Race #3

http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showevent.cfm?showEventID=141

Where: Toronto Island, Ontario

When: August 25th, 2012

Cost: Individual=$61, Relay=$92

Other Races: 

• Triathlon
• Duathlon

Aid stations: 1 with heed and water
Swag: Medal for top 5 finishers in each age group, technical t-shirt, cliff bar, flyers etc.

My time: 0:43:13.7

My splits: Swim=0:11:21, Bike=0:19:26, Run=0:10:32

My transitions: T1=1:13, T2=0:45

My Result: 1st out of 74 in my age group of 20-29, 7th in gender out of 222 females, 45th overall out of 475 participants

Kevin's Result (my husband&best friend): 0:38:23.6 He came 2nd in his age group out of 38 and 6th overall out of 475 participants. Can't wait to see what he'll create next year

Winning men’s times: 0:32:41

Winning women’s times: 0:39:28.2

Experience:

Well well well, I can't believe that I am writing about my last triathlon of the summer. I didn't expect to do so many or to enjoy them to the point I have. 

I chose to do the Toronto Island try-a-tri as the last one because I wanted to finish this season with my husband who started it with me. With him now back in season coaching soccer, this one was our last chance and close to home. 

We woke up dark and early at 5am after only getting 4 hours of sleep and to be honest at that moment I just wanted to go back to bed, correction my Gremlin was saying your tired your body doesn't want to do this, just go back to bed, no big deal. I fought the temptation and just kept moving to get my gear on, thankfully I had layed out my gear the night prior. 

We made our classic oatmeal to go, Kevin pumped the tires up and I took our dog, Kaiser out before we took off. We left a little late for my liking, and my Gremlin was out once again, placing the blame on my husband for hitting his snooze and not moving quick enough. He stayed calm through it all like he normally does and of course we made it downtown very quick and on the Ferry to the island with an hour to spare. I'm a very lucky lady that my husband has so much patience with me! 

After getting off the ferry we both got our bikes into the transition area by age group and prepared our gear. My gear as you can see to the left included a running/bib belt. This belt makes it much easier to put on and less worry about pins coming undone as one did in my first tri and figuring out where to pin it. Race cap's represent the wave you are in, my wave was 20-29. My bike shoes, what you can't see is that I have them already half done up so I just have to slip my feet in and tighten. My running shoes! They have quick laces and allow me to slip in my feet just like my bike shoes.

After set up I ate the granola bar I brought along because I ALWAYS tend to get VERY hungry during swimming. I mean to the point my stomach is grumbling so loud all around can hear and then there's the movement factor, not so fun. 

Toronto in the background of the transition gates!

Kevin came and got me shortly after eating and we went to get our numbers marked on our body, our chip on our ankle and pick up our race t-shirt. We still had about 30mins till Kevin's wave at 8am started so we walked down to the water. 

This is the part I was dreading! I've been practicing the swimming portion so it wasn't the distance, but the cold Lake Ontario water. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I stayed on the beach till five minutes before Kevin's wave was off and we both went in to check on the temperature. Much different than the lakes we've been in for prior tri's. Weather was warm outside but the water was numbing my feet. Kevin decided not to even go in full body but rather just lined up in the water ready to go. My wave didn't begin till 8:20 so I had 20mins to adjust my body temperature. When Kevin's race started I went in waist deep till I saw him out of the water and could cheer him on. I'm so happy it was in waves because we got to see that there was a sandbar right before exiting the water that majority of the men were tripping on when the sandbar went deep again. 

Kevin was now long gone and I had gone under, not so bad I thought! It's all in the mind right? My age group filled with women in pink caps and wetsuits on (minus myself) got called over. I made sure to line up near the front of the pack so I didn't get caught behind others. The race director then went over race rules from start to finish with us. Remember we had all been in the water warming up and during this 5 minute talk we were all shivering waiting to go back in. 

The gun was off! I was planning to do three strokes then breathe but due to all the participants I was breathing every two strokes. More feet and hands were on my body than before but I fought to stay calm and keep my position. I had to veer left off course at one point just so I didn't get sandwiched. This swimming is still a huge opportunity that I will be taking advantage of so that I'm not caught sandwiched one day!! The swim was 400m. For me it seemed like a long swim, and I know I've been training much further distances but somehow it seems daunting while I'm doing it. 

Approaching the last buoy, we had to turn right back towards the beach...a 'clothing optional' beach by the way!! I noticed that no one was out of the water yet and there wasn't that many swimmers in front of me. I picked up my pace and realized I had been reserving quite a bit of energy. Still haven't figured out why I do that exactly...I think it's to conserve for later but I"m always feeling that I could've pushed harder. 

Once out of the water we had to run through sand to get to the transition. This is where I started making up quite a bit of ground. Most swimmers were struggling to run the sand and I passed about 10 ladies in this short period. I could hear my breath quickening as I did so. 

On to the bike! 

The bike course was completely flat and why I probably cut my bike time by a few minutes from my last tri. Oh yeah I didn't fall this time, probably a big part of the improvement. I felt really strong on my bike and had it in the highest gear for the majority of the race. I was a bit wary of sand on the road in a few spots and wasn't pushing as hard as I could've been on the course. Sand was a factor the first time I fell and I still get a little nervy when I see it feeling like my tires will give out under me. My opportunity on the bike is with pushing a faster cadence in the higher gears. The scenery was pretty with the water just off to the side, I didn't get many looks though because I was looking mostly at the next racers and trying to catch them. Most races I've been in I'm in the first flight of women so I know any up ahead are beating me but on this day I couldn't tell because the relay and women U-20 were in a group prior. 

I did have one girl in my division pass me right before dismounting off our bikes so I kept a close eye on her and when transitioning to the run I decided to skip putting on my hat to get out of the gate quicker. Right at the start of the run I saw Kevin and not long after pulled ahead of who I will call Navy suit (navy swimsuit). She had something on her that was clicking so once passing I made sure to get ahead enough so that I couldn't hear her anymore. We had to do 2 loops near Helen's Point and then we were back on the grass again where I saw Kevin and he said, "Only 100m to go". This is where I should've sprinted but again my Gremlin was reluctant telling me to reserve my jets till I saw the finish and I chose in that moment to listen to the gremlin....wrong choice! I did turn on the jets once I saw the finish but after crossing the line I knew I could've gone much harder in my run. GREAT LEARNING!! Now I just need to make sure I don't have that same learning. 

My favourite part of the day was seeing all the new triathlete faces below: 

What an inspiration! I hope many of them are hooked and will be back next year. 

Here were Kevin and my results all printed up! My goal is to make it to that first page next year, so I 

don't have to take 2 pictures.

Award Ceremony:

Kevin getting his second places medal! The winner won the full race and was already gone. Probably training somewhere. 

My first gold medal for a tri. Now the hunger is on. 

Ride-Home:

 
 What a great morning with the day still ahead of us!

Paddle boarders and kayakers now out to play!

SeaWheeze lululemon Half Marathon Part 2 of 2

Post-Race Celebrations!!

After finishing the half marathon I tried to find Kat, Tara and Yolande. These are 3 of my friends that were racing. There were so many participants, making it difficult to spot them. I began getting pretty hungry so I decided to go get my bag from bag check then hit up the buffet for runners.

Where you pick-up your bag there was a massage station to get rubbed down after. I decided I’d come back to that after eating.

For the race we all had to wear a bracelet that said, “I runcouver”. This bracelet replaced the traditional race bib, and got participants into all the post race events. I thought this was clever but I still wish there would’ve been a bib so we could have official race photos.

Here’s a picture of the finishing medal that I spoke about in part 1 of 2 of my postings.


FOOD:

The best post race food I’ve ever seen was provided for this day. There were several different station areas to get granola bars, fruit skewers, waffles, and more. lululemon had cheeky sayings to go with each station. I feel for this section pictures are better than word so take a look for youself:







The finished product!


YUMMMM

In the food area I caught up with some amazing ladies that ran and we got a photo together. For many of them it was their first half marathon and they killed it…ALL accomplishing their time goals.


To my right is ‘Bulging Biceps Tara’ (your biceps are my goal!!), ‘Yager Yolande’ is in the blue to my left, she was a rifle in this race.  Kalon Kat is in the pink second from the left and she used that inner goddess to finish strong all while smiling.
After eating we were all feeling pretty tight so we followed the pink mats…


to get our stretch on with some yoga.

The yoga took place in an open grass area overlooking the water where planes were taking off and landing. Whoever went to this spot for yoga had an opportunity to work with a yoga teacher specifically for them and or the group you were with. They were there to support you with positions and modifications to stretch out what needed to be stretched.


Kat enjoying the sun in her face while stretching.


All smiles from Yolande who didn’t want to take that medal off! What an accomplishment.


I’m posing in downward dog, mimicking the mountains behind me! The warm sun felt so good on the skin. After this last stretch we were ready for some entertainment.
Later, after showering up and snacking, Kat and I arrived back at the convention centre area to watch ‘Hey Ocean’ and ‘FUN!’ perform.


‘Hey Ocean’ was so good that I later downloaded their whole album. Great tunes for running and I love their older albums too. They have a hipster, jazzy type sound. In their newer album it’s a bit more pop…with great beats.


Between bands, Tara on the far right spotted ‘Chip Wilson’. He is the very kind, humble, and lovely founder of lululemon who was very generous and was more than happy to get a photo with us.


‘FUN!’ took the stage as the final band. Just look at that stage and the location. Can it get any better? I don’t think so. I had so much fun listening to them perform and danced the whole time.
To wrap up the night, I enjoyed some great Italian food, and well earned Sangria.
I believe this half marathon is one that is only going to get better and I look forward to doing it again one day!!!

Shout-out to my body for recovering so nicely and to my awesome trainer Brandon Crowe who I believe has helped me with my strength so that I can tackle many crazy race courses and recover at a very fast rate. Check him out at:
http://fitnessunleashedtraining.com/

SeaWheeze lululemon Half Marathon Part 1 of 2

Race Report!

What: SeaWheeze lululemon Half Marathon
http://www.seawheeze.com/
When: Saturday, August, 11th, 2012

Where: Vancouver, BC

Cost to register and what you get: $128 CAD=Total luxury experience, breathtaking views and oh yah…speed shorts from lululemon WHAT…seamless too and special edition. TackleBox training program to get you ready for teh race and…… Entry to the concert which featured, ‘Hey Ocean’ and ‘FUN!’. Unreal.


Route:

Elevation:

My Time:
Chip Time- 1:47:26.9

My Result:
Overall-531st out of 5,892 participants
Gender-269/4757 (bummed that this goes off of the time the race starts rather than chip time).
*Key learning…Start in the correct corral!

Pre-Race:
The day before the race I went completely against my average pre-race routine. Instead of resting and hydrating tons. I toured the lululemon athletica headquarters then spent most the day walking around town and at the run expo in the sun.

Run-Expo:
The run expo started at 8am and I didn’t go till about 2pm. The result was that most of the limited edition gear that was on sale at the expo was sold-out by the time I got there. The sad thing was that a lot of the specialized gear wasn’t for individuals to wear but to make a profit on. It was being sold online not too long after the expo opened.
At the expo they had Davids Tea and Vega both present giving out samples. Popsicles, manicures, pedicures and massages were options for those who were willing to wait in line. My favourite was the dancing bear, hockey players and fish on stilts who were cutting shapes.


Before leaving the expo we all got the airbrushed tattoos that were offered.


Then I wrote on the goal wall before leaving.


Pre-Race Dinner at Cactus Club:
Many runners believe it is important to have a large pasta dinner before they race. I’ve tried this theory in the past and find it is too much for me to eat and leaves me heavy the following day. This time around I split a butternut squash ravioli with shrimp on the top with my friend Kat and a delicious salad too.



Race Gear:
For the race I wore my trusty speed shorts and an energy bra (MY FAVOURITE) with a swiftly racerback. All race clothes from lululemon. My runners were, nike frees that will only see a few more races. I didn’t put my usual Vaseline/Body Glyde on and experienced some chaffing at the base of my bra. As you can see the timing chip has a face on it! It’s none other than Chip Wilson (founder of lululemon), pretty cheeky.
Gear Check Take Away: Always stick to what you know and your usual routine.


Race Experience:
Waiting for the gun to go there was great tunes playing and the excitement was high. The start line had a huge watermelon that we all had to run under.


I started off in a slower corral for the beginning of the race because checking my bag at the expo took much longer than expected. This put me with a lot of runners who were running a slower pace than I planned. I will be sure to start in the correct corral next time so that I”m not stuck behind racers for the first few miles of the race.

The pacers were pace beavers, quite the twist on the pace bunnies. They all had earls and a tail on their head and wore bright yellow (ray) tops. I actually didn’t notice them once the race started because everyone around was in bright outfits. In a normal road race they would’ve stuck out but race day they blended in.



The first few miles of the race I was just trying to weave in and out of runners. Because I haven’t done a half or a full in quite some time I didn’t quite know what pace I wanted to run. I started off at around an 8:30min/mile and really started listening to my body to see how it was feeling. Because it was feeling good I tried to stay under an 8:20min/mile.

Between listening to my body I saw many interesting, intriguing, maybe even odd, and exciting cheer stations/non stations!

The first thing I saw was 3 characters (not sure what kind of characters to be honest) on extremely high bikes passing us on the bridge. They had on shiny costumes that caught your attention. It was like watching an episode of the family guy. I didn’t know if they were part of the race or not. Very random!
There were paddle boarders in Hawaiian get ups at around the 5k. The tide was quite low so they were hard to see but I loved it.

There was a choir in a tree singing, ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’, drag queens and more.
There were so many things I didn’t even see that I heard about but lululemon kept you entertained majority of the race with something to look at, hear or see.

My favourite cheer station was in Kitsilano, around 10k and it was a huge group of young girls dancing and cheering. It seemed as if there were hundreds of them and it was very motivating after the climb to get to them. It’s where I did some fist pumping.

Just around this time I was getting warm in my swiftly. During the mornings in Vancouver it was cool but as soon as the sun was out and the day grew later and my body warmed up I was getting hot. Decided to run in my sports bra and tuck my swiftly tank into the back of my shorts, with the plan to pass it off to someone I knew at the sideline if spotted.

After running around 10k I was still feeling really good and decided to stick around an 8min/mile pace for the rest of the race. As you can see my pace was jumping all over the place from an 8:24 to a 7:46.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214006797

As my pace started to pick up I got to run my favourite stretch of the race….The Sea Wall! With the ocean right beside me and mountains in the background I was in pure delight. It was a dream becoming a reality for me and I knew deep in my heart that it solidified my goals to live by the water! The marathon could’ve been loops around that Sea Wall and I would’ve been happy…I wanted to stay there all day.
Around the seawall I wasn’t too clear what part of the wall I should’ve ran on. Some were on the bike lane (inner lane) and many were on the outside walking lane where I was running. Maybe I would’ve cut some time on the inside? I was happy to be on that outside though, closer to the water.

Getting closer to the end I picked up my pace as we all ran through the park to the finish. I wish at this point there were more signs to the amount of distance that was remaining. The race was marked with km signs but not mile markers which was unfortunate. I believe there was an 800m sign but after that I didn’t know when I was hitting the 400m and less. I just picked up my pace to a full stride/sprint the closer I got to the end.
After the seawall there wasn’t many cheer people or stations for the last few km when many runners are excited for that cheering for the final push. Hopefully next year there will be. Overall I was so happy to push hard to that watermelon finish and was smiling bright eyed!


What a cool medal too! It’s a keychain on shoe laces, very resourceful and useful.

Thank-you lululemon for putting on such an exciting event…And just wait, it doesn’t end there!

Part 2 coming soon!!!